valentine

Thanks, LB. We just never really watched a lot of television and didn't rent a lot of movies. We enjoyed going to an occasional movie that interested us and made a nice evening of it. However we recently switched off to digital cable so Jim could watch the speed channel (he likes the Barrett Jackson auctions and some racing programs) and we discovered that we have hundreds of channels to chose from. We've gotten into some of the science "stuff" and are watching it a little more in the evenings. We then decided maybe we should think about a nice flat screen. I had NO IDEA what we were getting into. I've been ignorantly blissful while tv has gone into the twilight zone! It isn't a matter of just choosing a size, but you have so many other considerations as well. It is amazing, but I'm certainly glad some of you guys have enlightened me somewhat.

Legal Bill

I'm glad we can help. One more word of warning. Be careful to not accept the comments of some of the salespeople you are going to deal with. Many of them know about as much about the technology as you do, but have very creative imaginations and instructions to sell certain models. If what you are hearing doesn't make sense to you, it is probably because it doesn't make sense at all.

MsPerky

We have a 42" Panasonic plasma in our small second bedroom which serves as our sitting room. It is the perfect size for the space.

Morris

Good advice to try to use the same manufacturer. I have a Sony BluRay and a Sony 42 inch LCD TV which I like very much.
The best thing is that you are looking at under 500 out of pocket. When I got my TV for just under a grand, it seemed more important not to make a mistake. Not that 500 isn't a lot of change, but I'm sure you get my point.
One more thing I found, getting a Blu Ray DVD player made non-DVDs look much better than played on my old DVD player, on the same TV I mean. Don't ask me why.

sstodvictory

When I bought my flat screen TV several years ago I was disappointed by the sound quality. I'm guessing these days they expect buyers to have (or buy) a separate sound system, so they don't bother to build good ones in. On the other hand I didn't want to go the home theater sound system route either. I solved it by putting the TV on top of one of these. Its not equivalent to a good surround-sound system, but its good enough, and simple to install, and it will restore the feeling of watching a TV set that has good built-in sound for not much money.

ZVOX 325
http://www.zvoxaudio.com/cgi-bin/item/40032509

Steve

valentine

Lainey, fyi, +1 read all the info you provided on the Vizio. He too thinks it should be eliminated. He also found a lot of info indicating our good buddies at Wal-Mart and some other big box stores sell a lot of factory refurbished flat screens making it appear their prices are lower than other places (it pays to read the labels and small print on EVERYTHING). We're still plodding along, but haven't had a lot of time to go out from store to store looking. I'm hoping we'll have time today to go to a home theatre specialist to take a look at what they have. One of our neighbors owns such a store. They sell just stand alone flatscreens too, so we'll see what we can find. A big problem for us is hauling out our current unit. Neither of us can lift and the thing weighs a ton and will have to go down 2 flights of stairs.

Lainey

^
A little research is never a bad thing.

We too have a very heavy Flat front, but tube TV. It took four guys to get it into our house and it was only a few steps into the living room. We're waiting for it to give out to get a much lighter flat screen, not sure who we will draft to help us get that thing out of the house. Then you have the "what to do with it" issue. They aren't easy to dispose of.

DrCloud

I'd say this is a good time to be very nice to that neighbor, take him some good wine or something. A store like that will deliver and set up (and take the old TV away), and if you talk with the neighbor, maybe they won't push too hard on a sales pitch at the store.

One way to gauge that is what they tell you about cables. I was in one high-end store where the sales guy said, with great confidence, "You should spend at least 10% of the cost of your system on cabling, and pay special attention to speaker cables. Now, we have these..." I had trouble not breaking out in giggles.

Generally (and this was noted previously) cable is cable. On the other hand, workmanship is important, especially for complicated ones (like the HDMI cable), and you don't want to go the bargain basement route for them. But if they try to sell you expensive wiring, look at your watch, look surprised, say "Oops, I'm late", and bolt for the door. HPH

jukngene

We replaced our flat front, tube type TV with a Panasonic Plasma TV a couple years ago. It (the old TV) was so heavy that I actually brought my wheel-barrow into the house to load it on and it was all Bea's son and I could do to get it out the door and into the Murano. Since it still worked, we donated it to Goodwill.